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One More Thing Before We Go: The Pic On Your Obit

Hmm, I must admit that I find the following trend  disturbing:

A new study finds that the obituary photographs people choose are getting progressively younger – even as we’re dying older. The number of outdated obit pics more than doubled between 1967 and 1997.

Jezebel

paul-newman-photoAs morbid as I am, it might surprise you to know that I never thought about my obituary pic. But I do know that I wouldn’t want a picture from my 20s representing me at the end of my life.

And I found it sad that so many magazines and websites chose to run a younger picture of Paul Newman with his obit rather than remembering him as the handsome old man that he was before cancer took his life.

What do you think is causing this trend? Is it our American obsession with youth? Are we really this vain? Or is it the value system of the people we leave behind? Do they just want to remember us as young and shiny?

And how far will this trend go, I wonder. I’m scared that I’ll go to somebody’s funeral only to find a picture of her or him as a child on the bulletin. That’s all.